Stealing my intro from the original Welcome to the forum thread...
I've had mustangs and vintage Volkswagens that I've built and sold over the years but never pulled the trigger on a "farm truck". I grew up as a kid around the 80's and 90's street rod scene and always had an affinity for the 30's to 50's trucks but never really considered owning one; I finally caved in and picked up my first pre-war vehicle. It's a relatively stock 1940 Chevy pickup that was supposedly restored sometime in the 70's.
FYI...I've been working on the truck for a couple of months prior to posting this build thread so there will be a time lapse of sorts going on
Starting point of all this silliness begins here: First attached pic is how we found it, sitting in a guys shed of sorts. Truck ran and drove but it clearly had some issues. Ended up driving the truck home that day but took a bypass that avoided the mountain road.
Took the better part of the day but the truck made it home. Initial findings, brakes worked great, original 216ci straight six smoked or leaked enough oil to rival the exxon valdez, 3spd bull nose trans was an experience and the wiring was sketchy as ****.... but it started, steered and stopped all the way home.
Last edited by 32vsnake; Wed Sep 22 2021 02:05 PM.
Hot rodded 40 pickup.... in the dark of night she’s a looker.
Plans for the truck are to keep a fairly stock appearance with some slight alterations.
Paint: Black body, black fenders and black solids... I have a theme going on here and wow has paint gotten expensive
Suspension: stock straight axle with disk brakes, stock leaf springs front/rear with a couple of leaves pulled , 10 bolt rear axle.
At this point I've ordered and received the disk brakes from MP that bolt to the original 1940 drum hubs. Picked up a crusty 8.2 10 bolt from a 71 lemans. Will be running 15x5 and 15x7 wheel vintiques series 12 smoothies on 205/75R15 front and 235/75R15
Drivetrain: This is where things get a little squirrelly, so far I've picked up a TH400 auto trans and a 396 big block Chevy.
The deconstruction has proven interesting
Hot rodded 40 pickup.... in the dark of night she’s a looker.
Truck is super solid and somewhat clean but I'm finding that the fenders have had some heavy bondo sculpting. Anyway It's a great starting point for what I want to do with it.
Last edited by 32vsnake; Tue Aug 10 2021 08:11 PM.
Hot rodded 40 pickup.... in the dark of night she’s a looker.
When I looked at the truck, I ran a magnet over it and couldn't find any bondo in the body. I missed parts of the fenders or my magnet was to strong.
Two worst visible parts on the body are the dent in the lower grill area and some minor rust bubbling in the driver side front quarter. Make note of the word visible for future reference
Last edited by 32vsnake; Tue Aug 10 2021 08:16 PM.
Hot rodded 40 pickup.... in the dark of night she’s a looker.
Pic of the TH400 that I picked up for the truck, rebuilt with a shift kit in it...talk about overkill, it lived behind a 283 in a model A . Tags say that it's originally out of a 69 truck. And the BBC that I picked up from a neighbor down the street
Hot rodded 40 pickup.... in the dark of night she’s a looker.
The rad shell is one part of the truck that I didn't run my magnet over.... which leads to finding some issues with the metal and of course a healthy dose of bondo. That means the shell has to come completely apart in order to do a decent repair.... Not the best picture...backside of the rad shell. Got some of the dents hammered out
Last edited by 32vsnake; Tue Aug 10 2021 08:27 PM.
Hot rodded 40 pickup.... in the dark of night she’s a looker.
Still ripping into the truck... finding some good and some bad as we get deeper into it. Last time the truck was painted the sill panels weren't removed...they simply painted over them in place and the rear window flange is a little soft in the lower right corner
Hot rodded 40 pickup.... in the dark of night she’s a looker.
Grill shell surface rust got treated with rust mort and the panels had some dents removed then straightened before getting a skim coat of bondo... now primed and ready for paint at this point.
Front fenders aren't to bad..no rust or accident damage but as a farm truck it accumulated a lot of small dents over the years. A lot of the dents hammered out and after another skim coat of bondo they look pretty good. Well at least one of them does... still have one left to finish
prior to sanding ..lots of sanding
Hot rodded 40 pickup.... in the dark of night she’s a looker.
The rear fenders are a different story... dents and accident damage of some kind. Oddly both rear fenders are damaged in a similar location and manner. Straight edges in a curve is not an ideal shape
Doesn't look to bad sitting there... maybe I should have left well enough alone
Hot rodded 40 pickup.... in the dark of night she’s a looker.
